Tufting machines



' May 13, 1969 FIG]. 74 11 E. K. LUND TUF'I'ING MACHINES Filed March 17. 1966 1 F/G.2114 A INVENTOR ERNEST KENNETH LUND 5 W QALV, 0M J44 United States Patent 3,443,534 TUFTING MACHINES Ernest K. Lund, Accrington, England, assignor to Singer- Cobble Limited, Blackburn, Lancashire, England Filed Mar. 17, 1966, Ser. No. 535,113

Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 19, 1965,

11,648/ 65 Int. Cl. Gc 15/10, 3/02, 17/02 U.S. Cl. 11279 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A tufting machine for efficiently producing pile on a backing fabric is disclosed. The machine is of the type having a plate across which the backing fabric is drawn so that it is perforated by a multitude of needles carried upon a reciprocating needle bar. The plate has apertures through which the needles protrude during a portion of the reciprocating motion of the needle bar. Beneath the plate a plurality of loopers are arranged to engage the yarns carried by the needles which protrude through the backing fabric and the apertures in the plate. Upon retraction of the needles the yarns form loops on one side of the backing fabric. The invention resides in disposing the needles in sets on the needle bar and providing a looper for each set of needles. The looper is mounted to reciprocate and each set of needles is positioned with respect to its looper so that the looper in one stroke engages the yarns carried by all the needles of the set and thereby causes a plurality of loops to be simultaneously formed upon retraction of the needles.

This invention relates to tufting machines.

Tufting machines comprise a transversely extending needle bar carrying a plurality of needles for carrying thread and piercing a backing fabric, a needle plate for supporting a moving backing fabric and having a plurality of apertures therein through which the needles pass after piercing the backing fabric, and a plurality of loopers located relative to the needle plate to engage respectively threads carried by the needles after the latter have passed through the backing fabric and engaged the needle plate.

According to the present invention there is provided a tufting machine which includes an excess of needles ove-r loopers, the parts being so arranged that some loopers at least are operable with a plurality of needles.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention there are twice as many needles as loopers and each looper engages the thread carried by two needles. The needles are arranged in two rows in the needle bar and are located one behind the other in the direction of movement of the backing fabric. The loopers will normally engage threads on the same side of both needles, although the rows may be offset so that the line of join of the said points of two adjacent needles is inclined to the rows, and in this latter case the loopers may conveniently be arranged to engage one needle at the one side thereof and the other needle at the opposite side thereof. In this way the needles may be inclined and the loopers movable in the direction of movement of the backing fabric.

The loopers normally pivot into an operative position to engage the threads and in this case the pivot axes of the loopers will preferably be located symmetrically rela- 3,443,534 Patented May 13, 1969 tive to the outer rows of needles. Thus, if there are two rows of needles, the pivot axis of the loopers is parallel to and midway between the said two rows.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a detail section through a tufting machine of the invention for making a loop pile tufted fabric;

FIG. 2 is a similar detail section through a tufting machine of the invention for making a cut pile tufted fabric;

FIG. 3 is a. detail view in the direction of arrow 3 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan of a needle bar for use in a machine in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 5 is a detail section of a further modification of the invention showing offset needles; and

FIG. 6 is a view corresponding to FIG. 5 and shows a modified form of the rear needle.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 3 and 4, a tufting machine of the invention comprises a needle bar 11 and a needle plate 12 both extending transversely of the machine. The needle bar 11 is vertically reciprocable in the directions shown by Arrow A and carries a plurality of needles 14. The needle plate 12 serves as a support for backing material 15 movable relative to the machine in the direction of arrow B in conventional manner. The needle plate is apertured, as at 1-6, to allow passage of the needles 14 after piercing the fabric 15. Below the needle plate 12 is a plurality of loopers 17 mounted for pivotal motion about a common axis 18. Each looper 17 is in the form of a hook open in the direction of movement of the fabric 15.

The needle bar 11 carries a plurality of needles 14 arranged in two rows in the manner shown in FIG. 4, the needles being arranged in pairs aligned with the direction of movement of the fabric. The pitch of the rows of needles is conveniently one eighth of an inch as is the spacing between pairs of needles and the diameter of the needle shank.

The needles 14 are secured in the needle bar 11 by means of grub screws 21 each extending from the respective side of the needle bar 11. Each needle 14 has an eye 23 therein through which passes the thread 24 (FIG. 3) for making the loop. Slightly above the eye 23 is a generally flat bottomed recess 25 and the needles 14 are so arranged that both the recesses 25 of a pair of needles faces the same direction.

The rotational axis 18 of the loopers is located midway between the two rows of needles. The length of upper part 19 of each looper is sufiicient to service both needles of the respective pair.

In use, the fabric 15 is moved in the direction of arrow B in stepwise fashion, each step being twice the pitch of the rows of needles 14, and each needle 14 is fed with thread 24 from an associated yarn creel through tubing (all not shown) in conventional manner. Immediately prior to the needle bar 11 moving downwards which occurs when the fabric is stationary, the loopers 17 pivot in a counterclockwise direction, as viewed in FIG. 1, to a position where the hooks are out of the path of the needles. As the needless 14 pierce the fabric 15 and engage apertures 16, the loopers 17 pivot in the clockwise direction to pass into the recess 25 so as to lie between the needle 14 and the thread 24. The loopers 17 are now in the operative position as shown in FIG. 1. When the needles 14 are retracted, the loops of thread remain on the looper part 19. Thereafter the fabric is moved a step and the loopers again pivot counterclockwise thus releasing the loops supported thereon.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown a detail section of an alternative embodiment which includes a needle bar 111 and a needle plate 112. The needle bar is vertically reciprocable as is shown by arrow A and carries a plurality of needles 114. The needle plate 112 has openings 115 through which the needles may pass and such plate supports a backing fabric 116 movable in the direction of arrow B in a like manner to the backing fabric of the first embodiment hereinbefore described. Below the plate 112 there is a plurality of loopers 117 each of which is pivotable about a common axis 118 in the manner indicated by arrow C. Such looper is in the form of a hook having the hoop part 119 extending in a direction opposed to the direction of movement of the fabric 116. The undersurface 121 of the hook is ground and at the remote end thereof is formed with a nose 122. A knife 123 having a ground upper surface 124 co-operates with this surface 121 as will be described.

The needles 114 are arranged in pairs and in rows in similar manner to the needles 14 of the first described embodiment. The pivot axis 118 is midway between the rows.

The operation of this machine is similar to the first described machine. However, it will be appreciated that the loopers 117 pivot in opposite directions to the loopers 17 to move from the operative position (as shown) to the inoperative position. On pivoting of the looper 117 to the inoperative position, the nose 122 prevents the loops of thread 125 from passing off the loopers. Also on this movement the ground surfaces 121 and 124 will cooperate to sever the loops to leave a cut pile.

If desired the needles can be offset slightly as is shown in FIGURE the rearmost needle 214a being displaced to the left relative to the front needle 214b when working in a direction opposite to the fabric feed, a single looper 217 being arranged similarly to the loopers 17 and 117 to pivot about a common axis extending transversely to the direction of movement of the fabric.

We have found that with the needle arrangements where the spacing between rows is small, that depending upon the nature of the pile yarns, the loops inserted by the rearrnost needle may pierce those inserted by the forward needle if the yarn carried by the forward needle is a bulked yarn, but that no such piercing occurs if such yarn has any significant degree of twist.

The invention is not limited to the precise constructional details herein described and illustrated. For example three, four or more rows of needles in groups may be provided as long as a single looper can cope with the loops of all the needles of each group.

Whilst the embodiments of FIGS. 1, 2 and 5 use needles of standard form, it has been found convenient to use non-standard needles or a combination of standard and non-standard needles and indeed in some circumstances such needles or a combination thereof given an improved end product.

A non-standard needle 314a is shown in FIG. 6 and will be seen to have a generally cylindrical shank portion with a through eye adjacent the lower end thereof. The point of the needle is offset relative to the longitudinal axis of the shank and the needle is secured in the needle bar so that the needles point is offset in the direction which widens the gap between the point and path of travel of the looper.

We have found that by utilising standard needles in the front row and non-standard needles in the rear row, the corresponding needles of front and rear rows being offset by one-sixty-fourth of an inch, and all such needles being of one-thirty-seconds of an inch diameter, we are able to produce a tufted fabric having a uniformly distributed pile on the front face thereof and a uniform and dense backstitch structure.

What we claim is:

1. In a tufting machine of the type having:

a needle bar mounted for reciprocatory motion,

a plurality of needles carried on the bar for movement therewith,

a plate across which a backing fabric is adapted to be drawn, the plate having apertures through which the needles protrude during a portion of the reciprocating motion of the needle bar, and

2 a plurality of loopers arranged to engage the yarns after the needles protrude through the apertures to cause the yarns to form loops on one side of the backing fabric when the needles are retracted through the apertures in the plate,

the improvement comprising:

disposing the needles in sets on the needle bar, the

needles being arranged in parallel rows on the needle bar, each set being formed by needles of different rows, the needles of a set being aligned substantially perpendicularly to the rows,

providing a single looper for each set of needles and mounting the looper for oscillating movement relative to the needles in the set; and

positioning each set of needles with respect to its looper to cause the looper in one stroke of its oscillatory movement to engage the yarns carried by the needles of the set so that a plurality of loops are simultaneously formed for each set when the needles are retracted.

2. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein a needle of a set has its point offset relative to the longitudinal axis of the needle, the point being displaced in the direction away from the path of the looper.

3. The improvement according to claim 1 wherein the looper associated with a set of aligned needles is arranged to oscillate about a pivotal axis disposed midway of the set.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS HERBERT F. ROSS, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

